


the sun sets even in paradise

by jitters



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Post-Canon, domestic not-so-bliss, nothing explicit!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:27:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27936285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jitters/pseuds/jitters
Summary: No one ever said domesticity had to be easy. But that makes it more interesting anyway. [Shuake, Post-canon]
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 13
Kudos: 159





	the sun sets even in paradise

A leather glove, and a seed of hope.

That’s all Goro Akechi left him with.

He wasn’t sure what to expect; Ren’s never been forced to choose between one person and the agency of all humanity before. But the days feel empty, like he’s waiting for something and doesn’t know what -- but he _does_ know what, and it’s never coming back to him. 

The train ride back home - to his parents’ home anyway - feels all at once too long and too short, the journey trudging along as he watches the scenery as if he’s never seen it before. Only a year and it already feels so foreign, so much like Shibuya initially had upon his arrival. The city he once called home in the middle of nowhere now feels like one of a distant relative’s, and he’s only visiting for a holiday.

But this is no holiday, and Ren’s parents are waiting.

They aren’t there to meet him at the train station; he’d never expect them to be. But surely they’ll be excited to have him home, after a year without him, even if they did separate under unfortunate circumstances. 

His shoes scuff against the walkway as he steps off his train, the sound as familiar as a distant childhood memory he’s revisiting. The leaves are green, and the sky is clearer than he ever sees in Tokyo, but this doesn’t feel like home either.

Each step is too loud, too aggressive. The quiet of his small town now eerie in his ears, and every move he makes feels like it echoes sound around him. It was much easier to go unnoticed in the streets of the city, and though it may have been no more than a useful tool in surviving his probation, suddenly, he misses the static.

“Amamiya-kun!” 

Two older women approach him as he turns the corner, blocking his path and craning their necks up to examine his face. 

“That’s him alright,” one of them boasts, and the other scratches her chin, narrowing eyes at him and giving him a long once over.

“It’s me,” He offers, confused by their confusion but not in the mood to entertain it. 

“Ha!” They laugh. “They’ve been saying you’d be coming back more of a criminal than ever, but you look the same as always.”

“Criminals come in all types these days,” they shake their heads, crossed arms following. “But you’ll be on your best behavior now, won’t you?”

The louder of the two winks and cackles, and Ren doesn’t get a chance to respond before their chuckling and chatter carry them off in the other direction, one he’s thankful he doesn’t have to head in. The walk seems longer than it used to, and he pretends not to be stung by the group of kids whispering to each other as he passes, or his neighbor pointedly closing his window when he arrives ‘home.’

Standing outside his house, Ren takes a moment to pull out his phone and drop a text in the group chat ( _I’m back safe_ ). No one immediately responds, but it’s alright; they all have things to be doing that have nothing to do with him too.

It takes a few breaths, but he musters the energy to head inside, surprised to find the house fairly quiet. A surprise party maybe? He takes off his shoes at the front door and mutters his greeting, turning into the living room to find his parents both going about their business, his father engaged in a book and his mother with her eyes locked on the news.

So, not a surprise party then.

“I’m back,” he says with more gusto; he’s almost annoyed. 

“Oh! Ren!” His mother hops to her feet and approaches him carefully, her smile too wide. “I’ll make your favorite for dinner. Hot pot, right? With mushrooms? I don’t think we’ve had any since you left!”

Her hair is shorter than he remembers. He can’t remember the last time he ate mushrooms, and an ache in his stomach begs for curry. “Sounds great,” he lies, slinging his bag over his shoulder and dragging his suitcase behind him. Dragging his feet up the stairs to his room, he finds it untouched, and the person who once slept there now feels like someone else.

With the door shut behind him, he carefully places his school bag on his neatly-made bed, tapping the side of it. “Rise and shine.”

Stretching out one paw at a time, Morgana emerges with a yawn. “Morning already?”

Ren shakes his head and scratches Morgana’s back affectionately. “Nah. Evening I think.”

“Whoa!” The cat startles, prancing around the room without hesitation. “This place sure is clean. You sure it’s yours? It’s been a while.”

His chiding doesn’t go unnoticed, but Ren is quiet in response, hunched over when he sits down on the bed and instinctively reaches for his phone. No messages, no missed calls. On his social media timeline, a post from Haru pops up, featuring a photo of her and Makoto and various housing applications. (‘ _Independence is a virtue! Mako-chan and I are on this journey together.’_ ) It gets a smile out of him, and he likes the post without leaving a comment. “Living alone, huh,” he says out loud, and Morgana hops back onto the bed to sit down in front of him.

“You think you’re ready for that?” Morgana grimaces skeptically. “If even those two are struggling… I guess Akechi lived alone while he was still in high school, didn’t he?”

Ren’s mouth feels dry. “Yeah.”

Morgana regards him carefully, returning his gaze with a nod. “You don’t want to lose to him, do you? Might as well give it a try.” As well as he can considering his limitations, Morgana winks, and Ren has never been more thankful to have a talking cat.

“How did you know what I was thinking?” 

Morgana swishes his tail. “Home is a place you’d be happy to return to. This doesn’t feel like our home.”

Ren chuckles. _“Our_ home?”

Morgana meows defensively. “Hey! I’m no typical cat! If you get a place of your own, there better be enough room for both of us!”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Ren sighs, sliding his school bag back over his shoulder and ushering Morgana inside out of habit. “Want me to show you around?”

His agreement is muffled, Ren stuffing him away to sneak him past his parents and go out the front door without telling them. Like muscle memory, he turns his sights to the side of the house where his bike rests against the fence. The basket he’d normally use for groceries is too convenient, and he rests his bag (and Morgana) in it with a slight pep in his step, climbing on and peddling down the street at his leisure.

“You can peek now,” he tells his feline friend, and Morgana revels in the wind blowing in his fur as they pass down the quiet road. “Not as cool as the big city.”

“It has its own...charm,” Morgana snickers, though they can both see fields in the distance that put plenty of space between them and Tokyo.

Ren passes by his former school, the school he should be able to return to now that he’s been released, and all eyes of the baseball team practicing outside turn to him thanks to a girl on the sidelines wearing a Phantom Thieves jersey. She’s the only one, and Ren isn’t sure whether her aggressive waving or the glares from most of the team are worse.

Without the luxury of pretending he’s not who they know very well he is, their stares burn into his back and neck as he refuses to make eye contact with a single one of them. “Damn,” he says, self-deprecating. “Worse than I was expecting.”

“Aren’t those your classmates? Shouldn’t they be excited to see you again?”

Ren inhales. “It’ll be like being the transfer student again. I just know their names already.”

Morgana frowns and sulks down further into Ren’s bag, head sticking outside to watch the scenery pass them by, and finds both of them easing anxiety as Morgana points out notable sights and buildings, having Ren teach him all about his hometown. Out of the corner of his eye, Ren sees a distant but familiar flash of brown hair and signature tie, and he whips his head and bike around so suddenly that Morgana yowls and digs nails into the fabric of Ren’s bag, ripping a hole. 

“Give a guy a little warning next time!” Morgana whines, staring at Ren with wide eyes. “What happened?”

Ren blinks, facing the direction his eyes had led him, but no matter where he looks he doesn’t see what he thought - what he hoped - he had. “Nothing,” he shakes it off. “Just thought I saw...something.”

“Mrrph,” Morgana protests, zipping up most of the bag for protection. “Don’t get us lost, okay?”

Ren lets his silence stand in for the answer, shaking off the goosebumps his arms are covered in and pedalling more quickly. Around the corner, his eyes play tricks on him again, fooling him into seeing one Goro Akechi right in front of him, and Ren is even less elegant this time, halting with such sudden harshness that his bike falls over, rolling Morgana onto the ground and Ren fumbling after him.

“You okay?” he asks with a mysterious calmness, until Morgana howls.

“What’s the deal? You forget how to ride a bike?”

Ren shakes his head slowly, brushing dirt from Morgana’s fur apologetically. “I saw Akechi just now,”

Morgana stills. “Ren… Let’s walk the rest of the way back, okay?”

“That seems wise,” comes an unmistakable voice that is neither of theirs, and Ren’s stomach sinks. “At this rate, the pavement will do more damage to you than I ever did.”

Sure enough, Ren looks up to Akechi standing above him, arms crossed, the subtle smirk striking a chord deep in his gut. “Ake… No. What?” Ren pushes himself onto his feet, moving closer with hesitation in each step until he can plant both hands on Akechi’s head, messing up his hair like he once had to disguise him. He touches hair in his fingers, hears the sputter of protest out of Akechi’s mouth, smells the leather of his glove as it swats in front of him.

“This again?” Akechi hollers, sounding more embarrassed than angry. “What do you gain from making me look like an idiot?”

Ren stares, chest taking in shorter, quicker breaths. “Akechi?” He asks in disbelief, reaching out to touch Akechi’s cheek, only to be stopped by Akechi’s own hand grabbing his wrist.

“What are you doing?” Akechi questions, narrowed eyes.

“Is this a dream?” Ren asks, even though the hand gripping him sure seems real. “I was going to pinch you to find out.”

“You’re supposed to pinch _yourself_ ,” Akechi groans, pinching Ren’s arm for good measure and getting a yelp out of him. “Need more proof?”

Belief slowly setting in, Ren steps back, forcing Akechi to let go of his arm when he reaches an arm’s length of distance between them. “You’re real.”

“And you’re a difficult person to track down,” Akechi sighs as if it’s nothing. “Do you live out here by choice? It’s rather dull.”

“Not anymore,” Ren says in a daze, eyes shining, and Akechi averts his eyes, embarrassed by the intense amount of attention.

“Yeah, I’m riveting.” Akechi sighs and sneaks a glance at a stunned Morgana. “Is there anywhere I can speak to you alone?”

“Oh, uh…” Ren follows his eye line, to where Morgana is avoiding looking directly at either of them but clearly eavesdropping. He spots his bike on the ground and grins. “Sure. I could give you a ride.” 

“Are you serious?” Akechi questions derisively.

“Okay, I know it’s illegal to ride with--”

“I don’t give a shit about that,” Akechi chuckles. “But you’re delusional if you think I’ll let you be in the driver’s seat after that display.”

“Oh…” Ren feels all of his senses overwhelmed at once, on autopilot as he scoops up Morgana into his bag and follows as Akechi takes a confident place on his bike, and Ren holds his bag against his side as he takes a seat on the bar behind the seat. “This isn’t how I imagined this happening.”

“What, exactly?” Akechi raises an eyebrow while he pedals, and Ren can hear it in his voice.

“Uh, you know, you and me riding bikes together.”

Akechi attempts to look back at him, forehead wrinkled. “Are you implying that’s something you’ve imagined us doing?”

“Yeah,” Ren shrugs, gripping the side of the bike seat with one hand and failing to avoid touching Akechi in the process. “When I found out you liked it.”

Akechi’s back tenses, and Ren couldn’t ignore it if he wanted to, faced with that fact quite literally, his nose close to bumping the back of his neck at every turn. He follows Ren’s directions without interruption for a few quiet moments, until they turn a corner that makes the hairs on Ren’s neck stand, and he forcefully plants a foot on the ground to prevent them from making it all the way around.

“Not this way,” he swallows the lump in his throat. 

Akechi halts and turns over his shoulder to glare at him, the frustration in his jaw only subsiding when he catches sight of Ren’s face, and Ren can easily imagine how pale he must be, if the racing of his heart is any indication.

Akechi regards him carefully instead of getting angry, considering his words carefully. “Why not this way, Ren?”

Ren clears his throat, mouth dry. “Shi--” The name won’t leave him with confidence, not as he looks right into Akechi’s eyes and knows with certainty that the mere mention is upsetting enough. Carefully, he sets Morgana on the ground and tells him to stay put, up on his feet next to Akechi and holding out a hand for him. “Come with me.”

Akechi blinks at him. 

Ren blinks back. “Don’t tell me that after everything, you’re gonna question _my_ intentions.”

Akechi opens his mouth to speak, but he bites it back, eyes closed for a long inhale and the calming exhale that follows. “You’re right. You’ve been surprisingly consistent in that regard.” Ren’s hand hasn’t given up, and after a moment Akechi takes it, swooping a leg over and off the bike and following as Ren approaches what looks to be no more than a random sidewalk. 

At the sight of it, Ren’s head pounds and he lets go of Akechi’s hand to reach for it, playing off the pain by scratching his hair when Akechi looks at him suspiciously.

“I don’t get it,” Akechi admits, flatly. “I’m no idiot, but you’ve given me no explanation or reason for why we’re standing here.”

Ren pushes his nervous hands into his pockets. “Little over a year ago. I heard a woman in trouble so I ran to help. Some bald asshole was trying to force her to go with him. I got in the middle. He fell. Bled. Promised to sue. You probably know the rest.”

“The rest?” Akechi goes over all the research he’d done on Ren some months ago, and the timeline of events completes itself in his mind. “Ah. Your criminal record was something so...noble and arbitrary?”

Ren shrugs. “Disappointed?”

“Depends,” Akechi takes a step over the curb, kicking a spot on the ground that looks like it could still be the blood from that very incident. “That ‘bald asshole’ was Shido, wasn’t it?”  
  
Ren nods, and to his surprise, Akechi breaks out into a smile beyond his control, one that turns into laughter, and Ren has to figure it’s genuine from the way Akechi has to sit down on the curb to keep himself from falling with it. He chokes out one sob before he stifles his body’s actions entirely, sitting up and wiping a tear from his eye.

“The cruel irony,” he sneers, one hand on the curb and the other on his knee. “Of that despicable bastard being the reason the Phantom Thieves came to oppose him in the first place.”

Akechi isn’t easy to predict, but he’s worth the risk, and Ren doesn’t hesitate to take a seat next to him on the side of the road, resting both hands between his parted legs. He doesn’t need to say anything. Not yet.

“You told him, didn’t you? When you fought?” Akechi asks rhetorically, delight in his voice as he imagines it. “What I would give to be able to see his face in that moment. To revel in snatching the life out of his shadow.” 

His smile slowly drops, a heavier atmosphere setting between them, and Ren pierces through it, leaning forward towards Akechi and trying to catch his eyeline. “What thought are you letting ruin that moment for you?”

Akechi’s eyes widen in surprise, locking eyes with Ren and immediately averting his gaze. “Nothing I haven’t expressed before,” he strains, voice breathy. “I was simply pondering the damage we could’ve done to him if you’d come into my life sooner.”

If he hadn’t already heard Akechi lament so already, he’d be taken aback, but Ren is at least prepared for the emotional impact this time, matching Akechi’s deep breath and facing forward. “We can’t go back,” he says, a surprising freeness to his voice. “But we have now.” He turns his head to watch Akechi closely, not wanting to let this go. 

Akechi hums low beside him, looking down at his feet with a smirk that Ren finds cuter than he should. “It’s quite a lot of pressure, you know,” Akechi says teasingly, his voice light and airy. “Being someone’s greatest wish.”

Ren’s ears burn red. “So unfair. I’m the only one who had to have a secret exposed.”

Akechi rests his chin on his palm, elbow on his knee to hold his weight as he leans in towards Ren. “You’re out of your mind if you think your soft spot for me was a secret.”

Fair enough. But Ren smirks right along with him. “Good thing that’s mutual.”

Akechi rests his head to the side. “Is it?”

A strand of hair falls across Akechi’s face, and Ren reaches out to move it back in place, brushing fingertips across his forehead without thinking. “You’re not as good at lying as you think you are.”

Akechi leans back with a frown that lowers his brow, resting his hands on his knees. “I was doing a fine job of it before you came along.”

Ren bumps Akechi’s knee with his own. “Doesn’t that prove my point?”

There is no answer, not that Ren was expecting one, and Akechi moves onto his feet, stretching out his arms and knees. “Yes, well. That brings me to why I’m here.” Akechi flicks the edges of his hair back and stretches the edge of his glove, hands moving through each of his nervous habits in an attempt to delay his own words. 

No issue. Ren would watch him in silence for hours if he were asked to. Even he can tell that the way Akechi clears his throat is forced, but that makes him smile.

“What’s that look for?” Akechi asks when he notices.

Ren’s eyes smile too. “I just missed you.”

Akechi is unexpectedly unfazed by that, eyes serious as they hover on Ren’s expression, and his back straightens when he finally turns away. “What if you didn’t have to miss me anymore?”

Ren’s eyes widen, and he stands with a sense of urgency. “If you’re thinking of hypnotizing me or wiping my memory or something, forget it. I’m not forgetting you.”

“C-calm down,” Akechi holds up his hands, taken aback. “I’d never propose something so preposterous. Your sentimentality is your weakness… If you are stupid enough to miss me that much, you may as well live with me so you don’t sulk so much.”

“I wasn’t sulking,” Ren defends with a mumble, but the realization of the real intent under Akechi’s words hits him a second later. “Are you...asking me to move in with you?” He stares in shock, as Akechi gives him no more than a slow nod and a cross of his arms. After a moment, Ren mirrors him mockingly. “So this is just for my sake, not your own? Nothing in it for you at all?”

Akechi taps his foot, unable to hold his frown for long when it seems like it isn’t genuine. “I wouldn’t wish to live with anyone who knows me as a Detective Prince or who came to know of me through news headlines. You on the other hand, know me more intimately than anyone else. I don’t have to lie or pretend and you won’t have any expectations for me to crush.”

“Right…” Ren can’t help but grin secretly. “You can just say I’m your best friend, I don’t mind.” Akechi pouts, but says nothing, and Ren bends and looks up at him to make sure he gets a good look. “Really? Not gonna argue that?”

“Well, if I only have one of something, it is the best by default, is it not?”

It’s an insult and a compliment at the same time, but Ren has gotten used to that, and a calm overtakes him, his heart peaceful as he reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out Akechi’s glove, carefully clutching it in his hand. “I knew you’d be back.”

“Is that seriously--” Akechi wastes no time in approaching him, both hands clasping Ren’s and touching the glove with his thumbs, too focused to notice or care that his fingertips are just as attentively pressing against the back of Ren’s hand. But Ren does, and even manages to hold off blushing until Akechi looks up at him closely, suspicious. “You’re carrying this around with you?”  
  
“Yeah,” Ren has no problems admitting. “Have since you gave it to me.”

Akechi takes in a sharp breath, any sign of a frown disappearing from his face. What replaces it is a tight jaw, Akechi swallowing so hard that Ren can hear it, and Akechi forces himself to turn away, slightly hunched over and straining his entire body. “Quick, say something funny.”

It’s an odd request, but Ren fumbles around his brain for something anyway, chuckling when he looks at the sidewalk. “How pathetic Shido looked begging for forgiveness on TV.”

Like clockwork, Akechi chokes out a laugh, inhaling a forceful sniff and wiping his eyes before he faces Ren again. “Thank you, that image is delightful.”

“That’s what best friends are for~” Ren teases, putting his hands back in his pockets, along with Akechi’s glove. “Were you crying?”

Akechi scoffs, “Not if I can help it.”

Ren kicks at the ground. “Best friends are pretty good for that too.”

Still tense and holding back any unnecessary emotion, Akechi coughs into his hand. “I’ll keep that in mind.” And after a beat: “I imagine your cat is probably getting impatient.”

“Probably,” Ren sighs, wishing the moment had lasted longer but now confident he’ll get plenty more. “You should...come over for dinner. Have a real home-cooked meal for once.”

“Is that a thinly-veiled insult?” Akechi chides, but Ren rests a hand on his shoulder as he passes and goosebumps overtake him, rendering him momentarily speechless.

“Nah. I just think you deserve better than frozen TV dinners.” And curry and coffee, but Ren can’t throw his own diet under the bus and expect his point to hold up.

Morgana is indeed waiting impatiently when they return, but Ren silences him with a pleading face and stuffs him back into his bag before he loops it over one of the handlebars and takes a seat. 

“I’m calm now, so you can sit behind me,” he tells Akechi, patting the bar behind him. “You can even wrap your arms around me if you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Akechi snares, sitting sideways behind him and resting one hand on Ren’s shoulder for stability. “You’re shameless, you know,” he sighs.

“Oh, I know,” Ren laughs as he begins pedalling. “But if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have such a pretty roommate.”

“Does that mean you’ve accepted my proposal?” Akechi questions, shoving the compliment to the back of his mind for the moment. “Not that I expected otherwise.”

Ren throws a smile back over his shoulder as a good enough answer, pedalling as quickly as he can so he arrives back at the house before the sun sets. Once Akechi’s off, he tosses his bike to the side of the house where it had been and opens his bag for Morgana to hop out. “No use hiding anymore,” he shrugs. “Time to introduce my family to my new family.”

As Ren opens the door and heads inside, Akechi turns to Morgana with hesitation in his voice. “Does he mean me?”

Morgana nods and snickers. “I sense a lot of sushi in our future.”

Stunned, Akechi hangs back a moment after Morgana disappears too, feeling the weight of being referred to as someone’s family for the first time in years weighing heavy on his heart in a way that’s unfamiliar to him.

“Akechi?” Ren’s voice calls to him, and the light from inside shines around him as Ren stands in the doorway, holding a hand out for Akechi to take. “You coming?”

The sense of deja vu is palpable but distant, like it’s something he buried in a dream or a memory, and he’s reaching his hand out without a thought and taking it, letting Ren yank him inside. 

* * *

Maybe Ren should be more worried, or sad about hurrying to leave his parents again, but they make him feel more judged than anyone, and looking at Akechi across the dinner table with Morgana eating from a plate at his feet, he can’t imagine not choosing them.

That feeling is even stronger, seeing how easily Akechi slips into the fake-nice voice he uses whenever he feels most uncomfortable, and he feels as compelled as ever to help him live a life where he never has to do that again. 

Akechi is enjoying his meal enough to clear his plate, a look Ren recognizes as satisfaction held on his face when he takes the last bite, and he can’t help staring. Akechi may not notice - but Ren’s mother does, regarding her son carefully, with a forced smile. “I like your friend, Ren.”

“Huh?” Ren looks up when Akechi does, not quick enough to escape being caught, but he shakes it off and acknowledges her. “Oh, uh, me too. I’m gonna go stay with him for a while.”

“Just the two of you?” His father’s voice pierces through the tension of the moment, sending a chill up Ren’s spine. “Considering your situation, you shouldn’t be giving anyone more reason to question your character.”

He hides it for Ren’s sake, but Akechi glares daggers in the man’s direction, knowing exactly what he’s getting at and finding himself insulted on Ren’s behalf. “Not to worry,” he says in an impeccable customer service voice. “Ren leaves a favorable impression on everyone he meets. He hasn’t let his home life influence his character.” He takes a slow sip from his drink, reveling in the silence that follows. “I mean the rural environment, of course.”

Both his parents stunned into silence, Ren grins, head hanging but his eyes twinkling when Akechi meets them and smirks knowingly. 

“I don’t like your friend, Ren,” his father says stiffly, his eyes boring into Akechi.

But he’s unphased, politely dabbing his mouth with the provided napkin when he finishes his drink, standing and moving to the other side of the table. “Let’s go, Ren,” he says through gritted teeth and a forced smile, though the way he takes Ren’s hand is softer.

Ren is unable to resist, letting himself be pulled along to his own bedroom despite the heavy thumping in his chest. He’s confused still, when Akechi closes the door behind them and locks the door, leaning back against it with one leg crossed over the other. “Um…” Ren says dumbly, taking in the sight of him again. “Hey.”

Akechi looks up with alert eyes and laughs, crossing his arms. “You seem like you’re in a good mood, considering you seem to share my experience of having a piece of shit father.”

“He’s not--” Ren starts defensively, but when Akechi raises a suspicious eyebrow, Ren sighs. “Sure. But you stood up for me. And you’re here. In my room. Why wouldn’t I be in a good mood?”

Not that being bold has ever gone wrong for him, but the smile Akechi tucks against his shoulder is worth every risk he’s ever taken. “Is this why you decided to come with me? To get away from them?”

Ren considers it, but shakes his head. “Just seems boring now. I’d rather be with you.”

As if it could make the butterflies go away, Akechi’s arms cover his stomach. “You should be more careful with the things you say or I’ll misunderstand.”

“What is there to misunderstand?” Ren shrugs, and moves to open his closet, rolling out a single-person futon on the floor. “Sorry you’re stuck here, but you can take the bed.”

“No, no--” Akechi interrupts him swiftly, taking it upon himself to steal a pillow from Ren’s bed and make himself comfortable on the floor. “You’ll be taking the couch at my place, so you might as well enjoy your last sleep here.”

“Whatever you say,” he smiles knowingly, but he hesitates to move on so quickly, gazing wistfully at Akechi sitting on his floor, scrolling through who knows what on his phone. “Akechi. You’re lonely, aren’t you?”

Akechi’s finger stops swiping, but his eyes remain locked on his screen, fixated on staying away from him more than seeing anything. “Yes,” he admits with a stilted sigh. “Is it that obvious or are you trying to make fun of me?”

“Neither,” Ren says, confused. “I want to understand you better.”

“Yes, well,” Akechi stands, hand on his hip. “I trust that such an admission can stay between us?”

Ren nods. “Everything between us always has.”

Believing every word he says because he’s never been anything but annoyingly earnest, Akechi is taken aback, snatching his chance to head for the door. “If you intend to change into something else to sleep in, you’d best take that chance while I use your restroom to wash up.”

Akechi leaves the door open, and Morgana takes the opportunity to slip inside and hop up onto Ren’s bed, tail swishing when he lays himself down at the end of it. “So… Akechi, huh? This must be like a dream come true for you, Joker.”

His voice is teasing, but Ren doesn’t deny it, smiling to himself. “Yeah. I’m really glad he’s okay.”

He takes Akechi’s advice and changes into more comfortable sleepwear, but Morgana beside him snickers knowingly. “Come on, Ren. This is me you’re talking to. You can’t get away with hiding anything with me around.”

“Unfortunately,” Ren chides back, dodging the swipe of Morgana’s paw immediately thrust his way. “Okay, okay. All I wanted was to spend more time with him… Now I get to do it without taking anything away from him.”

“Or anyone else,” Morgana reminds him.

“Right, of course,” Ren agrees easily, but Morgana still raises an eyebrow (or what he calls his eyebrow) and smirks.

Akechi breaks the potential tension when he returns, and it’s obvious to everyone that he’s in a good mood, a distinct satisfied smile on him even as he climbs comfortably into the futon on the floor. It might normally be the kind of thing Ren would ask him about, but he’s far too distracted when from under the blanket he’s been given, Akechi removes his pants out of sight and folds them carefully on the floor next to him, along with the shirt he then removes to reveal a fitted undershirt beneath.

“Do you always sleep dressed like that?” He asks without thinking, staring with tightened fists.

“Seriously!?” Morgana whispers loudly next to him, but Ren ignores him.

“Not typically,” Akechi answers nonchalantly, unperturbed by the personal question since he’s so used to magazines asking such odd details. “But I didn’t prepare well for my trip here, so I’ll work with what I have.”

Akechi shuts the light off without asking or saying anything at all, and Ren puts himself into bed smiling, immediately texting Ann on the other side of the world to let her be the first one to receive his exciting news.

* * *

  
Akechi wakes up feeling the comfort of his bed instead of the futon he fell asleep on, momentarily wondering if he’d dreamt or imagined the spur-of-the-moment trip he’d supposedly made the day before, and even worse, he’s woken up holding a pillow again.

A pillow that...moves? _Breathes?_

Akechi’s eyes shoot open when the realization hits him, his nose and forehead pressed right up against Ren’s back, both arms wrapped around his torso. His whole body is more or less pressed up against the other’s, no chance of escaping this without being caught unless Ren happens to be a terrifyingly heavy sleeper.

“Fuck,” he whispers to himself, not only for the predicament he’s found himself in but for the intense and undeniable comfort he feels having another body so close to him. He can’t remember the last time he’s been so close to _anyone_ , and for it to be Ren in particular…

Akechi selfishly avoids stirring altogether, moving as little as possible as he carefully nestles his forehead back in place and letting out a sigh of relief. If embarrassment is going to come for him, at least he can enjoy the moment before he has to suffer through it.

“Morning, Akechi,” Ren’s voice scratches sleepily, and Akechi can _feel_ the smirk he’s wearing even if he can’t see it.

“Oh no,” He unintentionally exclaims aloud, pulling his arms free and sitting up, head shaking as his cheeks redden and he clutches his head with both of his hands. “This is humiliating.”

“Why?” Ren shrugs as he lazily pulls himself up to sit next to him. “I liked it. You felt...nice. Even more than I was expecting.”

“Expecting?” Akechi echoes, still hiding half his face but looking at Ren questioningly with the other. “Did you plan this somehow?”

Ren laughs out loud, his smile surprisingly bright. “No, just imagined it a lot.” His eyes run over Akechi’s body next to him, his innocent smile transforming into a grin topped off with a waggle of his eyebrows. “You’re in my bed.”

Akechi blinks back at him, red face losing all color completely, and he wordlessly sweeps onto his feet and grabs his clothing, heading towards the bathroom without looking back.

Similarly, Ren grabs the edge of his blanket and pulls it over his head, curling up into a ball under his covers. “Mona, help,” he says, muffled, and the cat in question stretches out next to him.

“What is it about Akechi?” He yawns. “How can you be so cool in the metaverse and then turn into _this_!?”

“I don’t know,” Ren shakes his head and flings it free, his hair a static, fluffy mess when he lifts it up. “He’s so good looking. Emotional. Interesting…”

“Sure,” Morgana shrugs, excusing himself out the same door. “Just let me know when we’re leaving. Or eating. Whichever comes first.”

Ren does pick new clothes to get dressed in, but is thankful to have a suitcase already packed, even if it is for odd reasons, and in a comfortable t-shirt and jeans, he heads downstairs to put his things by the door, surprised to find both Morgana and Akechi at the breakfast table with his parents. 

“Oh, Ren,” his mother calls, waving him over. “Akechi-kun was just telling me how much money he makes… It seems you’ll be well taken care of after all.”

Akechi rests his chin on his hand and smiles, lifting a cup of coffee to his lips. “Did you hear that, Ren? Your parents want me to take good care of you and your needs.” He winks and turns back to her. “You needn’t worry. He’s had plenty of jobs himself. I’m certain we’ll be actively keeping each other satisfied.”

Next to him, Ren chokes on the biteful of rice he was attempting to take and catches a strange look from both of his parents. “Something wrong, Ren?” his father asks from the corner.

Shaking his head, Ren coughs and waves his hand dismissively. “Just tried to swallow too fast.”

“Oh no,” Akechi feigns concern, locking eyes with him. “I hope you don’t make a habit of that.”

After a moment of clenching his fists and gaining composure, Ren carefully pushes his dish away and stands, bowing apologetically. “We should get going,” he says firmly, and Akechi chuckles as he follows suit.

“It was...educational to meet you both,” Akechi says more or less politely, and this time it’s Ren who interrupts and pulls him out of the room before he can say more. Morgana has to run to catch up and jump into his bag, and Ren nearly tips over his own feet dragging both Akechi and his suitcase out the door, yelling back that he’ll call his parents later.

As soon as they’re out into the street, Ren lets go, and Akechi bursts into laughter.

“I’ve never seen you so flustered,” he cackles, and all Ren can do is listen, embarrassed by the situation but also enjoying the sound of joy.

“You’ve never been so direct before,” he says, hushed.

Wiping the corner of his eye, Akechi’s still smiling as he falls in stride with him and calms his laughter. “What can I say? It was a treat to watch you squirm.”

“A treat, huh?” Ren eyes him. “Well, I don’t mind. Just not around my parents.”

Akechi lowers his head with a faint smile. “You’re funny, Ren,” he says in a lowered voice. “No matter what I throw your way, you take it. Even enjoy it. Just what kind of guy are you?”

“Oh, you know,” Ren adjusts his stride so they’re walking more closely. “Just your god-endorsed soulmate. The guy who wished you back from the dead?”

“Am I meant to thank you for that?”

“Nope,” Ren shrugs. “Just happy to remember I got what I wanted anyway.”

Akechi halts his step, hand on his hip as he cocks his head at Ren thoughtfully. “You’re a bit of a brat, aren’t you?”

Ren looks back, but doesn’t stop. “Bet you’d like to find out.”

“Unbelievable.”

  
  
  


They board the train without incident, and start their ride even more uneventfully, and Ren spends the first chunk of it replying to all the texts he’d missed the night before as Ann surely spread the word to all of their mutual friends, while Akechi pensively watches the scenery pass out the window.

He’s never been a heavy sleeper at night, especially not recently, and it isn’t long before Ren dozes off, arms tightly crossed around his chest as his head hangs, neck strained.

“There’s no way that’s comfortable,” Akechi groans, folding his coat over and resting it on Ren’s shoulder, attempting to urge his head to rest on it. It almost seems to suffice, but at his first adjustment, Ren leans to the side, letting his head fall to rest on Akechi’s shoulder instead. “I--” Akechi sighs, muttering, “Your neck is going to regret this later,” but inevitably does nothing to move him.

* * *

  
  


When they arrive back in Shibuya, Ren rubs his eyes open and yawns, “I had a dream I slept in the arms of an angel.” He cranes his neck up, and looks at Akechi with forcibly wide eyes. “Oh yeah, I did.”

“What the hell is that,” Akechi grumbles, lightly shrugging Ren’s head off. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Ren freezes and angles himself sideways. “Am I?”

Akechi blinks. “No.”

Despite that response, he stays close to Ren’s side, making certain he’s followed and that Ren keeps up even while pulling the suitcase behind him. The ride on the subway is even quicker and more urgent, but when they reach Akechi’s neighborhood, he slows his pace, sneaking glances towards Ren every few steps.

“What is it?”

Akechi stops in front of a surprisingly tall apartment building, entering the code to get in and allowing Ren to enter before him, waiting until they’re in the elevator. “I need you to know,” he articulates carefully. “Inviting another person into my space for even a moment would be significant for me. You being asked to stay indefinitely is no trivial move on my part.”

“I know,” Ren says softly, facing forward. “I won’t give you any reason to regret it.”

* * *

  
  
The apartment is small, with a joined kitchen and living room near the front with the bathroom and bedroom down a hallway just past it. Akechi never initiates a tour, finding it enough to point out the pull-out couch he’ll be using as a bed and the already-emptied closet where he’ll be keeping his things.

Looking around, Ren is reminded of when he first arrived at LeBlanc for the first time; Akechi’s apartment has few identifying features to it; it looks like it could belong to anyone, with no personal photos up or paintings on the walls, the furniture plain and unreasonably tidy. On the table in front of the couch though, sits Akechi’s laptop, journal, and a small pile of DVDs containing NEO Featherman, various detective dramas, and overseas films Ren isn’t familiar with.

Instead of unpacking, Ren tucks his packed suitcase into his new closet and lets Morgana out of his bag to explore on his own. 

“Did you just move in?” Ren asks when Akechi catches him looking.”

“No. It’s been a few weeks.”

Ren frowns, stretching his arms out as he pushes them into his pockets with a confident and affirming nod. “I’ll help you make it look more like a home.”

“What’s wrong with my home?” Akechi says with surprise. “It’s not always this neat, but of course I’d clean before inviting you.”

Ren shakes his head again. “There’s no evidence anyone lives here. You don’t even have any pictures up.”

“And just who would I have pictures with?” Akechi mutters uncomfortably, more hurt by the reminder than Ren had planned for, and he wonders if he should apologize.

Instead, he opens the camera on his phone and points it upwards. “Me,” he grins, pulling Akechi in without hesitation and wrapping his arm around his waist, snapping a well-timed picture of Akechi’s surprised but pleasant face next to his before Akechi manages to pull away.

“Sorry, I--” Akechi interrupts himself, adamantly ignoring the temptation to put physical distance between them. “Every time you do that, it feels like… Just. I’m not used to it, alright?”

“Every time I do what?” Ren asks, pocketing his phone. “Touch you?”

Akechi silently but firmly nods.

“A bad feeling?” Ren raises an eyebrow.

Akechi sighs, “No.”

“Oh, good,” Ren perks up with a lick of his lips. “‘Cause I was planning on doing it a lot more often.”

Akechi’s stomach flips, and he grows suspicious. “Is this payback for earlier?”

“Nope,” Ren steps in closer, meeting him eye-to-eye. “In fact, there’s something I’ve been wanting to do since last night.”

Akechi doesn’t get a chance to ask what that is before Ren rushes in, wrapping his arms around Akechi’s middle and holding him tightly, even resting his head against Akechi’s shoulder, getting a surprised gasp out of Akechi but nothing more.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Ren whispers, a secret moment between the two of them. “I thought about you every day. I _knew_ I’d see you again. I knew it.”

Akechi’s mouth hangs open, no words coming out of it but a million thoughts running through his head, all drowned out by how quickly his heart is beating and the feeling of warmth he was already missing from this morning returning to him. Eventually the urge is too great to ignore, and Akechi’s hands press against Ren’s back, his own eyes closing and head resting against him. “You’re the only one who never gave up on me,” he whispers too. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Ren says cheekily, pulling out of the hug only to head towards the kitchen. “I haven’t even made you dinner yet.”

Akechi stares. “You’re-- What?”

“What?” Ren echoes, reaching inside the fridge. “You didn’t think I was going to let you keep eating take-out and frozen meals forever, did you?”

After a few moments of looking through Akechi’s near-empty kitchen, Ren shakes his head and puts his shoes back on, heading out the door muttering something about needing to find the nearest grocery store ASAP. After a moment of confused and stunned silence, Akechi sits down, checking the alert on his phone that turns out to be Ren. (‘ _Hope you like curry_ ”)

Akechi smiles despite himself, not attempting to hide it as he doesn’t notice that Morgana has stayed behind until too late, and the cat in question hops up onto the couch beside him. “I saw that look,” Morgana chides. “Are you still pretending you don’t like him?”

Akechi straightens his back. “He doesn’t seem to mind.”

Morgana‘s ears fall, and he gives Akechi a pleading look with his eyes. “Joker cares about you,” he reminds him, hopping down and towards a sunny spot on the floor he can curl up under. “Try not to break his heart, okay?”

“I don’t—“ Akechi starts, but he’s interrupted by another notification from his phone; Ren again, sending him the photo he’d just snapped of them together.

They both look stupid. 

Akechi stares at it far too long before he finally gives up and sets it as his phone background. It’s not like anyone will see it anyway.

* * *

  
Morgana’s words are still echoing in his mind later, and Akechi brushes off the knowledge that the musings of a cat were somehow able to affect him, wondering instead how Morgana was so certain Akechi would be the one breaking Ren’s heart; Akechi had always been preparing for the opposite, knowing at every turn how much emotional risk was involved.

Even when Ren does arrive, with two armfuls of groceries to stock Akechi’s kitchen with, Akechi finds himself hiding his phone instinctively, not wanting to let on that he’d been thoughtfully pouring over the photo they’d taken together nearly the entire time he’d been gone.  
  
“Didn’t get lost, did you?” he chides instead, still helpful regardless, hurrying to put away food before Ren has a chance to, not wanting to seem lazy or ungrateful for the gesture. Amidst the groceries, he finds a rather expensive espresso maker, and pushes it to the front, standing with one hand on his hip as he regards Ren suspiciously.   
  
“What?” Ren asks cheekily, unable to keep from grinning. “Gotta be prepared in case you realize you only like me for my coffee.”

Akechi throws him a wary glance, but sighs when he tires of suspicion. “Don’t tell me you somehow have any funds from your days traversing Mementos.”

Ren shrugs and rubs the back of his neck with a shy grin. “Guilty,” he laughs. “Never knew what to do with my stash, but making it a Spoiling Goro Akechi fund works for me.”  
  
Slightly stunned, Akechi parts his lips and stares for a few seconds, silenced and having to avert his eyes. The redness in his cheeks is easily hidden with the right angle of his face, and Akechi insists on finding it. “You don’t need to do such things for me.”   
  
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Ren shrugs, and nods towards the familiar robot vacuum in the corner of the room. “You’re Mr. Independent and don’t need anything. Just accept that maybe I _want_ to give you stuff.”   
  
In a way, it could be argued that those were selfish desires for Ren’s satisfaction as well, and putting in those terms made it far easier for Akechi to accept. He casually lifts his arm and pulls on his sleeve just enough to expose the watch Ren once gave him and show it off in the light. “Even the gifts of vanity such as this one?” he asks with a smirk.

Matching that smirk, Ren reaches over and takes Akechi’s hand in his, bringing it towards himself almost prince-like, pretending to examine the face of the watch and surprising Akechi with a kiss to the back of his hand instead. “ _Especially_ gifts like this.”

“O-obnoxious,” Akechi sputters, pulling his hand back and clearing his throat into a tightly closed fist. “I can only imagine how many men and women alike you’ve used these lines on.”

Ren shrugs, and goes back to putting away all of their groceries. “None, actually,” he clarifies as he finishes, leaning his back against Akechi’s refrigerator. “I’ve kinda always liked you.”

Akechi raises an eyebrow. “And by ‘always’ you mean--?”  
  
“Since the day we met,” Ren finishes for him, hands stuffed in his pockets to avoid indulging in his nervous habits. 

Akechi’s gaze lingers, but his smirk is one of amusement. “So all of those “hangouts,” were they meant to be...dates?”  
  
“I didn’t want to assume,” Ren shakes his head defensively. “But I wanted them to be.”

“Interesting.” Akechi’s hand rests on his chin thoughtfully, and a heavy silence hangs between them for a moment before he finally speaks again. “Well, we live together now,” he points out obviously, but the words feel comforting. “We have plenty of opportunity now. If you’re interested.”

Though surprised at first, the smile that grows on Ren’s face is almost immediate, and he finds himself holding back all the words he *wants* to say in favor of settling into a delighted nod. “Mm.” 

Akechi thinks of the picture he’s now bound to see every time he unlocks his phone, and nods back. “Good.”  
  


* * *

  
Ren has always thought of himself as skinny. Even after all of the weight training he’s done, he’s more slender than most of the guys he’d consider strong, and the muscles he has are nothing to brag about. So when he finds himself clinging to the side of a cliff, even the helmet crushing his hair into a bowl shape and the harness cradling his abdomen don’t make him feel any more confident about being able to hold his weight.

“Ren?” A voice calls up to him, but Ren has his eyes tightly closed and his limbs shaking, face pressed up against the boulder. “Ren,” the voice sighs again, exasperated. “You’re only a few meters off the ground. The world’s tallest men could reach you with their arms.”

“Cool,” Ren forcibly laughs, opening one eye to peer at Akechi down below him. “Could you go get them then?”

“Pathetic,” Akechi mutters under his breath, but he looks all too eager as he stretches out his gloves and grips the rock, pulling himself up with ease until he’s right next to Ren, resting his weight outward, feet planted firmly in a crevice in the rock. “You are making this out to be much more difficult than it is.” Akechi’s eyes narrow and his voice lowers. “Are you in pain or otherwise distressed?”

Ren’s other eye pops open, eyebrow following. “Worried about me?”

“Never,” Akechi lies, but it makes them both laugh. “But if any dangers should present themselves, you would have to _give up_.”

Ren whines, hiding his face against the side of the rock. “This is a harder challenge than your usual ones,” he says with a slight shake to his voice, and his limbs are similarly vibrating.

Instead of mocking him, Akechi gazes on with curiosity, eyebrows tightened in analysis mode. “Surprising, for you to find a weakness here of all places,” he muses, kicking himself off the rock and floating over to Ren’s other side, then back again. “You’re no stranger to ropes, or steep climbs. What makes this different?”

Ren glups, feeling queasy from watching Akechi swing around him like that, despite how confident he seems as he does so. “We’re not in the metaverse, it’s…” He looks into Akechi’s eyes for comfort, pleased to find it, with Akechi buried too deep in his fascination and curiosity to worry about insulting him, at least for the moment. Ren sighs, quieting his voice. “I’m afraid of heights, okay?”

It’s not only a confession, it’s a show of trust, and even Akechi is hesitant to laugh or tease, knowing he himself would react quite horrifically to being mocked for his own personal revelations. “Okay,” he nods, slowly assessing. “You have a fear of heights, yet you agreed to join me for a day of bouldering, which you knew would, indeed, involve heights.”

Ren blinks. “Yeah.”

Akechi angles his head. “Why would you do such a thing? Were you really so determined to prove yourself better than me at something that you’d put yourself in distress?”

The conversation almost makes him forget where he is; everything seems to become much more pleasant when Akechi is looking at him. Ren even smiles, “You said you enjoy this so I wanted to enjoy you enjoying it.”

Akechi’s breath hitches in his throat, and despite how understanding he’s been, he shoves Ren’s shoulder on instinct, sending him flying and flailing his arms about until he can grip onto the rock again, knocking against it with a thud. 

“Oof,” he laughs, trying to hide how nervous that made him, but the loud gulp he struggles through gives him away.

“I suppose this isn’t the time to tell you I typically do this without the ropes and harnesses?” Akechi grins knowingly, but gets little reaction from Ren in response, sending him back into thought. “Fine. Give me a moment.”

Akechi intently focuses on adjusting his rope, climbing sideways towards Ren and giving no warning before he reaches for Ren’s harness, adjusting the loop around his waist and removing his carabiner, hooking it onto himself instead. 

“You’re going to want to hold on tightly,” Akechi says flatly, as if it’s nothing.

“Hold on...to you?” Ren takes in a breath.

Akechi avoids his shining eyes. “Unless you would rather I leave you here to fend for yourself,” Akechi says snidely, but Ren won’t give him the chance, wrapping arms swiftly around Akechi’s body and taking a firm grip on the harness loop around his hips. “Well then,” Akechi chuckles with amusement, but doesn’t revel in the moment for too long, belaying his rope and rappelling down, unhooking Ren from his own harness as soon as their feet hit the ground.

Ren immediately falls to the ground, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” he grins.

“What a shame,” Akechi shakes his head, gripping the rock with his hands and free climbing towards the top, showing how easily he pulls himself up. When he reaches the top, he removes the safety hook from deep in a crevice and hooks it on his belt. “You’re missing out on the scenery, you know,” he sighs, before he makes his way back down, the bulk of his weight relying on the strength of his legs.

“I don’t know,” Ren grins, raising an eyebrow as he watches Akechi come down, focusing his sights on the muscles of his legs and posterior. “This view is pretty good too.”

Unable to stop himself, Akechi laughs in earnest, hopping down the rest of the way and pushes the pile of rope into Ren’s arms, smirking. “You don’t need to make up excuses to ogle me,” he chuckles, giving him the once-over. “But it amuses me how hard you try.”

Ren blushes, looking away as he packs up the tools in the bag Akechi prepared them in. “You always make me want to try,” he shrugs. “Before you, I was kinda average at everything.”

Akechi raises a curious eyebrow. “And ‘after’ me?”

Embarrassed, Ren shifts in place, pulling the bag over his shoulder to carry it for him. “Done a lot of things to impress you. So uh, thanks for making me a better person, I guess.”

Akechi watches him for a moment, taking in the sight, and each of his words. “You’re not very eloquent,” he muses with a sideways grin. “But you are genuine, aren’t you…” Ren shrugs again, and Akechi scoffs. “Alright then. Let’s get coffee. Your treat.”  
  


* * *

A day comes when Ren returns home to find jazz music playing, just loudly enough for him to hear it at the front door even though it’s playing in Akechi’s room. He’s not normally one to indulge in something like that, at least not at any time where Ren is home, and Ren has an amused smile on his face as he slips off his shoes and bag and tiptoes toward Akechi’s door, poking his head inside to see Akechi sitting on the floor with his back against his bed and his head leaning back against it, eyes closed.

The case to the album he’s listening to sits in his lap, and Ren can’t quite read any of the information, but he’s fairly certain the singer is the same one they’d listened to on their first date to Jazzjin. 

Even after he enters the room, Akechi doesn’t seem to notice, lost in whatever thoughts the music has trapped him in, and Ren takes the opportunity to sneak in and sit across from him, listening to the music along with him, but more importantly, taking notice of how _gorgeous_ Akechi looks look this, when he thinks no one can see him and has only his favorite music as company.

It’s only when the track ends and there’s a brief silence before the next one that Akechi lifts his head and finally notices Ren watching him, and to Ren’s disappointment he hurries to his feet and reaches for the tone arm, lifting it off the record and setting it to rest. “You’re home early,” he notes as an excuse.

“Not really,” Ren shrugs, pointing at the clock at his bedside. “Lost track of time?”

“I suppose I did,” Akechi admits, clearing his throat. “It must have been too loud if you managed to find your way in here without me hearing you.”

“Yeah,” Ren chuckles, and cleverly puts the stylus back in place where they’d left off, adjusting the volume so it made for background music instead of the mind-numbing Akechi had been enduring before. “This is fine though. Looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

“How embarrassing,” Akechi huffs before Ren even finishes, crossing one arm over his chest to hold the other and sitting on his bed with a frown. “You must be mocking me.”

Ren shakes his head, but gives no warning before sitting down next to him on the bed, his legs hanging off, and he leans back, folding his arms behind his head to use his hands as a pillow. “Gonna join you for a while. So I can feel whatever you were feeling.”

The song continues to play, but Akechi’s attention is drawn to Ren, and how casually he laid back on his bed and closed his eyes like he thought nothing of it. It has always been mysterious to him, how Ren manages to act without thinking so often. Akechi has never had the luxury. Still, he ignores the funny feeling in his stomach and leans back next to him, assuming the same position and allowing himself to drift back into the music, blocking out everything except the sound, and the comfort of the pleasant company. 

It isn’t until the end of the next song that he opens his eyes again, feeling like he’s being watched, and he turns his head to find that to be true. Ren’s eyes are curious and attentive, entirely focused on him.   
  
“What?” he asks suspiciously, instinctively defensive. “Do you have a problem with the way I choose to spend my--” 

“I was just thinking about kissing you,” Ren interrupts him, reveling in the way it instantly silences him. Despite the twisting in his stomach, he remains still and unwavering in the pause. “Can I?”

Akechi chokes on air in surprise, and he stares up at the ceiling for a few tense seconds, before knitting his eyebrows together with determination in his eyes. He half sits up and leans over Ren, his weight resting on his hands on either side of him as he closes his eyes and the distance between them, lips softly caressing Ren’s beneath him. 

Feeling like he’s just won the lottery, Ren indulges himself, leaning into the kiss and deepening it, his hands reaching for Akechi’s waist and pulling him in, arms wrapping around him and holding him close as their kiss deviates from chaste. 

Akechi is more than receptive at first, until things turn passionate and heated, and with his heart pounding in his chest and the concerns running through his mind even louder, he pushes Ren’s shoulders back into the bed and pushes off of him, backing up across the room and turning off the music. “Sorry,” he says half-heartedly, with a tight jaw and arms moving to cross over his chest. “I’m not-- I can’t...I shouldn’t do such things.”

Ren sits up too, frazzled and confused, but still riding the high of the gift he’d just received. “I dunno,” he laughs. “I think you were doing a _great_ job.”

Akechi sighs and stares harshly at a spot on the floor. “If that’s the only reason you came in here, you’re going to leave disappointed,” he asserts, back straight. “I’ll order in tonight, so don’t worry about cooking.”

Akechi swiftly exits the room and leaves Ren perplexed, cursed to spend the rest of the evening wondering what he did wrong, but when Akechi carries on pretending nothing happened, Ren follows, and files away the memory of the best kiss he’s ever had.

* * *

  
  


Once a week, Akechi disappears for a few hours at a time. He leaves without a word, and returns without any indication of where he’d been. Ren has spent enough time with Akechi to know that prying won’t get him anywhere, and may even push him away further, so he lets it go on for as long as he can without saying anything.

But Ren is only human, and he finds it much more difficult to ignore when Akechi arrives home with hunched shoulders, hair wet for the rain, and eyes red and swollen. He’s had those days too.

After tossing his jacket onto the coat rack and letting his shoes off, Akechi flops onto the couch with less elegance than Ren has ever seen, and he takes the risk of sitting down beside him, silence permeating. He lets it last long enough that to his surprise, Akechi doesn’t tell him to move or hide himself away, and instead lets his heavy head fall to Ren’s shoulder, fully leaning against him. 

“Coming down with a cold?” Ren asks when he sniffles, offering Akechi an excuse he knows isn’t true.

“Maybe,” Akechi chuckles in response, voice raspy. “I’m exhausted.”

Ren watches him for a moment, and thinks about how absurd it is that Akechi can still look so beautiful even when he’s clearly in distress, and wraps a comforting arm around him. “That’s alright. You can rest here for as long as you want.”

A quiet, peaceful moment passes, and Akechi lifts his head to look at Ren with curiosity in his eyes. Whatever he wants to ask never makes it past his lips though, as Akechi instead has another use for them, and rests his palm against Ren’s cheek as the only warning before capturing him in another kiss. 

In his surprise, Ren doesn’t initially make a move of his own, losing himself in the euphoria of being kissed by _Goro Akechi_ , but when Akechi does nothing to shy away from him, Ren gains confidence, wrapping his arm tightly around him and pushing a hand through Akechi’s locks of hair to hold the back of his head. 

Akechi hesitates for a few seconds that have Ren holding his breath, but inevitably releases the tension from his shoulders and relaxes into his hold, pursuing an even more passionate embrace and leaning against Ren’s chest. 

“I’ve been dying to do this,” Ren chuckles when their lips part, but Akechi stills, holding up a hand to Ren’s lips and ensuring they don’t meet again. This time though, Akechi’s smile falls and his eyes go distant, looking saddened instead of the anger he’d expressed previously.   
  
“Apologies,” Akechi sighs, dejected, as he moves to his feet. “It seems I’ve made a fool of myself again.”  
  
“You didn’t--” Ren persists, but Akechi brushes him off when he reaches a hand out to him, and Ren again stifles his urges to pry.   
  
  


* * *

  
  


Ren bakes two individual cupcakes for Akechi’s birthday, and specifically requests for all of his friends to give them a day off, even going so far as to send Morgana to stay with Futaba so they’d be alone. Patiently, he waits for Akechi to arrive home from work, and as soon as he walks in the door, Ren is waiting with a cupcake in each hand and several birthday hats stacked on top of each other on his head.

“Happy birth-oof--” Ren starts, hat tower wobbling and threatening to slip, but Akechi is quick to step in and hold them steady, lightly chuckling at the sight.

“What’s all this?” Akechi asks, curious as he takes one of the cupcakes from Ren’s hand, fingers brushing against each other as he does.

“Happy birthday, Akechi,” Ren finishes on the second try. “Baking that much would be a mess, so I’m wearing a hat for every birthday you had to spend alone. Wish I would’ve been there.”

Akechi’s smile parts in surprise, his eyebrows raised and posture softening. “You… That’s…” Words escape him, and after swallowing thickly, he takes a bite out of the cupcake, giving his mouth something else to do. “Oh. It’s actually delicious.”

“‘Actually?’” Ren chuckles, and takes a bite of his own. “Were you expecting me to suck at baking?”

“Not at all,” Akechi answers immediately, shaking his head and offering a fond grin. “For a moment I wondered if I should expect another ‘surprise’ like the takoyaki incident.”

Though it gets a laugh out of him, Ren easily shakes his head. “I told you I didn’t give you that one on purpose,” he persists, balancing the hats on his head, placing a hand on the small of Akechi’s back for leverage. “I knew you wouldn’t want some loud surprise party right now. Works for me ‘cause I wanted time with you anyway.”

Akechi blinks, and sets down his treat before stepping in close and carefully removes the hat tower from Ren’s head. “Is that your way of telling me that your company is meant to be my present?”

“Huh? No, no, I got--”  
  


“Because that just happens to be exactly what I wanted,” Akechi finishes with a smirk, and locks eyes with Ren, a glint in his eye that is just *daring* him to respond.

“Oh,” Ren says dumbly, quickly understanding. Without a word, he fills the rest of the distance between them and pulls Akechi into an eager kiss, hands resting on his waist and gripping his sweater. Akechi is more than willing, wrapping both of his arms around Ren’s neck and fully indulging. Ren’s roaming tongue isn’t rejected, and he mentally compliments himself on the cupcakes as their recent bites flavor their kiss, extra sweet.

Things seem to be working out for him, and they soon end up making out on the couch, limbs tangled, and Akechi is more receptive than ever before, until Ren’s hands begin to roam, and Akechi suddenly pushes Ren’s hand away from his inner thigh and sits up, breathing heavy as he stands and brushes off his clothing. “Shameless, aren’t you?” he sighs, and tries to leave.  
  
But Ren is determined this time. “Akechi,” he says firmly, grasping his hand. “Do you not like being touched?”   
  
Akechi scoffs. “Excuse me?”

“You get weird whenever we do this,” Ren points out, like Akechi hasn’t noticed. “I’m obviously... _something_ to you, ‘cause you don’t seem to have any problem initiating. So what is this?”

Akechi stares like a deer caught in the headlights, and attempts a shrug. “I don’t have any idea what you’re referring to,” he lies. And Ren sees through it so easily, he doesn’t play along.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to do anything,” Ren shrugs back. “But this back and forth is confusing.”

“Hah. Is it truly ‘fine?’” Akechi wonders incredulously. “You seem rather eager to get your prize. As shallow as all the rest of them.”

“Of course it’s…” Ren blinks. “The rest of who?”   
“Forget it,” Akechi mutters and pushes past him. “Men with such insidious desires always find a way to get their needs met.”

Ren scratches his head, taken aback. “Why would I…” He lets the words sink in further, and remembers Akechi’s mother, how she’d been desperate enough to make money in ways Akechi was too young to be aware of, but he’d had no choice. How from such a young age, he’d only seen physical intimacy in the context of transaction, and how miserable it had made his mother.

Suddenly it clicks.

Shuffling after him, Ren throws his arms around Akechi from behind, holding him close and resting his head against his shoulder. “You’re so much more than that to me,” he says softly, slowly. “I like you _so much_. That’s just one way I show it. I never will again if you don’t want me to, I mean it.”

“I wouldn’t initiate it if I didn’t want it…” Akechi mutters with a red face, thankful Ren isn’t able to see it. “Giving up so much control is just…”

“Scary, I know,” Ren finishes for him. “I won’t make you say it.”  
  
Out of sight, Akechi peacefully smiles and sighs to himself, wrapping his arms around Ren’s arms around him, hugging him back. “The shelter that took care of my mother and I set me up with a counselor near here,” he confesses suddenly. “That’s where I’ve been going.”

Ren takes in the revelation, and nods. ”Cool.”

“That’s it?” Akechi asks suspiciously, craning his neck over his shoulder to look at the top of his head. “You’re not even going to ask what I talk about?”

Ren shakes his head. “Not my place. Just relieved to know where you are.”

After a quiet moment of consideration, Akechi turns around in Ren’s arms and takes his face in his hands. “I like you _so much_ too,” he teases, mimicking him, and meaning it. “So I’d like to pick up where we left off, if you can accept me being in control. For now.”   
  
“You say that like it’s a sacrifice,” Ren waggles his eyebrows, and delves into laughter when Akechi reaches for a pillow to hit him with. Both of them unable to hide their smiles, Ren takes Akechi’s hand in his own and beams. “Ever made out while watching Featherman?”

* * *

  
  


  
Their ‘Movie Nights’ become a regular occurrence, and Ren finds himself looking forward to them even more than Akechi does, so much so that he often auto-pilots home after school and work and slumps himself down against Akechi’s side without so much as a greeting.   
  
He doesn’t remember falling asleep this time, but Ren finds himself waking peacefully, head resting on a warm, albeit squishy pillow, his hair being stroked by gentle fingers. He doesn’t make a sound when his eyes open, even when he discovers the pillow is actually Akechi’s lap and the fingers in his hair are none other than Akechi’s too. He must’ve fallen asleep during the movie they were watching. “You have nice hands,” he says proudly, his voice soft, but the surprise has Akechi pulling both his hands back. “Hey, why’d you stop?”

Akechi clears his throat, but doesn’t do anything to move Ren from his lap, clenching his fists to keep them from wandering back towards him. “I feel I may have crossed some boundaries.”

“Pfft,” Ren scoffs, sitting up, paying no mind to how messy his hair is, turning towards Akechi with wide eyes and baggy shirt falling off one of his shoulders. “You’re allowed to touch me,” he says, with no ulterior meaning.

But for Akechi, the implication iis impossible to ignore, and he stares at Ren with a wrinkle in his forehead. “How can you say such things with such an innocent look on your face?”

“Ugh,” Ren groans, head falling forward and hanging dejectedly. “The innocent thing again? Haven’t I suffered enough?” His complaining is exaggerated, dramatically wiping his brow.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Akechi blinks at him.

Ren straightens up a little, using a voice softer and breathier than his own, “More surprising is just how innocent you seem to be~” he repeats, in a voice that’s undeniably sultry, holding in a laugh at the end.

“Is-is that supposed to be _me_?” Akechi stares at him, unsure whether or not he should be offended. “Of all the things I’ve said to you, why would you remember such innocuous commentary?”

“Because it wasn’t innocuous,” Ren answers easily, leaning back against the couch. “It was really hot. If I hadn’t already been attracted to you, that would’ve done it.”

“Fascinating…” Akechi muses, taking a long moment to think on it, before he throws Ren a curious glance, lips curved devilishly. “You’re some kind of masochist, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Ren corrects defensively. “I guess it’s just, I’d like to be, you know--”

“Dominated?” Akechi asks, in the same sultry voice Ren had used to imitate him, as he straddles Ren’s lap and pins his wrists to the back of the couch, face hovering close above him. “How convenient, as the thought of you submitting to me has kept me similarly entertained in the moments I’ve spent alone.”

“You’re so into me,” Ren says cockily, without thinking. 

“Hmph,” Akechi responds, leaning back so his back is straight. “Says the one I’ve got fully wrapped around my finger right now.”

Ren licks his lips, unable to control the impulse. “Mmm, one way or another I’ve always been wrapped around your finger.”

“Oh?” Akechi raises an eyebrow, though the lift in his voice is more interesting. “I might just test how far you’re willing to take that.”

Akechi’s breath is warm in his ear, and Ren shudders. “Yes please.”

* * *

  
  


Akechi isn’t much of a househusband, Ren soon discovers. The dishes always need a second wash, he’s never done the laundry without misusing the bleach or losing half of the socks, and it doesn’t take long at all to realize how truthful Akechi was being about his cooking skills, after they’ve had to replace kitchenware more times than reasonable.

Worst of all, is the way Akechi seems to be incapable of properly making a bed, and it doesn’t take long for them to both agree it’s simply easier for them to share one. It isn’t until after Akechi has used flirtatious kisses as a way to get out of doing things a few hundred times that Ren considers he may be faking on purpose.

In Ren’s eyes though, it’s an even trade he will happily accept responsibility for.

* * *

  
Sumire is one of the few friends Ren has left in town, but Ren doesn’t mind; he also happens to be one of the few people he can talk to openly about his relationship with Akechi, and he takes every opportunity, thankful that Sumire is consistently attentive.   
  
“Did your training go well today?” He asks on a typical day walking her home, with his hands both in his pockets, despite how warm it is. “Or was your instructor hard on you again?”

Sumire giggles, hiding her smile behind her hand but holding her head high. Her bag is gripped in both hands in front of her, and she’s gently swinging it side to side. “She’ll always be hard on me because she wants me to do well, senpai.”

“Right,” he nods, pulling his phone from his pocket but keeping it at his hip, trying to hide that he’s looking at it while he walks by her side. Akechi had sent him a picture of his most recent attempt at curry, and Ren smiles seeing that at least the color seems normal this time.

“Senpai?” Sumire calls, pulling him from it. He quickly shoves his phone away, but she’s not fooled. “It was Akechi-senpai, wasn’t it?”

He shrugs, too used to it to blush but feeling bashful about being caught to look her in the eye. “What makes you say that?”

Sumire stands up straighter, eyes downtrodden and avoiding his gaze even more than he is. “You are quite popular, senpai,” she says gently. “You always seem to have a message from someone, but you only smile so much when it’s from Akechi-senpai.”

“Really?” That surprises him, and earns her a wide-eyed look, as if it was any secret. “I didn’t even know I was smiling.”

Despite her feelings, that makes her smile too. “You must really like him then.”

Taking in a breath, Ren thinks for a moment, about what he and Akechi are like together, and the sigh he releases leaves him smiling too wide to hold it in. “‘Like’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

She stops in her tracks; instead of offending her, it hits the deep part of her that likes to believe in romance for romance’s sake. “Does he know that? Takamaki-senpai has been telling me all about the manga she reads, and bad things always happen to the characters that keep their feelings a secret.”

“I don’t know if he wants to hear things like that,” Ren mumbles, but he hasn’t stopped grinning. 

She thinks back to the metaverse. “...He gets mad?”

Knowing exactly what’s going through her head, Ren laughs, shaking his head. “No, no. Not about this. He just doesn’t know how to react.”

She hums to herself thoughtfully and playfully bumps against his arm. “You two have that in common then.”

Ren doesn’t get a chance to protest that -- Akechi would surely disagree -- before they’re approached by a well-dressed man with heavily styled hair, stepping between them but not to move past. “Hey cutie,” he drawls at Sumire, back blocking Ren out completely. “You ever been to a host club? Your skinny boyfriend can come too.”

“H-he’s not my boyfriend,” she says shyly, “But I don’t want to go.”

“Even better,” the man cackles ostentatiously. “Then let’s dump him and go have fun, just you and me.” He hovers over her, and she shies away, stuttering but unable to speak up, and that’s enough for Ren.

“Leave her alone,” he demands with a pull at the man’s shoulder, but his voice is still soft. “She’s not interested and you should get out of our way.”

“Hah?” The smooth-talker snorts and turns to face Ren, slinging an arm around Sumire and pulling her close, tight enough that she can’t get loose without putting up a fight. “You ain’t her boyfriend so it ain’t your business. Move along.”

Still calm, Ren sets down his bag and his phone and steps in closer, glaring and lowering the tone of his voice. “Let her go or we’re gonna have a problem.”

“Pfft, oh yeah?” The man scoffs, releasing Sumire only so he can narrow his eyes and focus in on Ren, bending slightly over with his shoulders hunched. “What are you gonna do about it?”

Sumire takes the opportunity to free herself and dart behind Ren instead, breathing a sigh of relief. Ren’s position doesn’t change, still staring down the threat. “I don’t _want_ to do anything. But I will.”

“Tsk, whatever,” the man shrugs, and reaches around Ren to grab at Sumire’s arm and pull her, but Ren is quick to respond, grabbing the man by the wrist and swiftly diving underneath his arm to pull the man’s arm behind his back. “What the hell?”

“Don’t hurt him, senpai!” Sumire pleads, and Ren shakes his head; he was never planning on it anyway, but now the intruder has an opening, and he swings his other arm around, fist colliding with the side of Ren’s eye, crushing his glasses and landing a punch.

Ren stays standing, but is thrown off balance, instinctually clutching his head in his hand, and the obnoxious man scoffs, running for it and yelling something about how she wasn’t worth it anyway.

Sumire hurries to Ren’s side, picking up Ren’s glasses from where they fell on the ground and wiping them off. “Thank you, senpai… I’m sorry you got hurt for my sake.”

Ren takes them from her and shrugs, letting his hand drop and seeing Sumire’s instant gasp. “What?” He touches the side of his face where she points to find that the corner of his fake glasses left a bleeding cut, and he groans in annoyance. “I guess I should get home and take care of this.”

Sumire grins, her eyes disappearing.

“What?”

“You used to call it Akechi-senpai’s place, or just say you had to go back. But you called it ‘home’ just now.”

Ren shrugs. “Home is...comfort, right?”

Her smile doesn’t falter, and she softly laughs. “I’m glad you found that for yourself, senpai.”

Sumire is kind enough to gather Ren’s things for him, giving him worried looks as the area around his eye begins to bruise and swell the more they walk. It’s black and blue by the time they arrive. The walk up the stairs to the apartment is silent, but Ren insists on inviting Sumire in when she attempts to leave him at the door. She nervously accepts, face lighting up when she spots Akechi on the couch with a book in his hands and back hunched over.

“Long time no see, Akechi-senpai,” she beams politely, and he’s quick onto his feet, not having intended on seeing anyone else in his apartment but too far gone to hide the fact that he’s in sweatpants and without make-up.

He knows the polite thing is to greet her back, but his attention is quickly drawn away the second his eyes land on the disaster that is Ren’s face. “What the hell happened to you?” He bites curtly, his eyes furrowed with concern as he passes Sumire completely and takes Ren’s face in his hands, roughly holding up his chin so he can examine his eye. “You’d better have left the perpetrator looking twice as bad."

“I’m fine, by the way,” Ren smirks, planting his palms on top of Akechi’s hands and pulling them away from his face. He’s still holding them when his arms drop. “Might help if you kiss it better though.”

Akechi gives him a sideways grin and pushes Ren’s lips away when he exaggerates a pucker. “You should wash your face first,” he teases, patting Ren’s rear end as he shoves him off towards the bathroom. It’s then that he remembers Sumire, and gives her a slight nod of the head. “Yoshizawa-san. I trust you know what happened?”

“Of course,” she says brightly, taking a hesitant seat on the couch. “Senpai...is a really good guy. There was a…” Her smile and eyes fall. “A man was bothering me. Senpai stepped in to protect me.”

“Is that so?” Akechi asks suspiciously, crossing his arms with a stony expression.  
  
“Yes…” Sumire answers with hesitance, confused by the cold response. “He was so cool, Akechi-senpai,” she says dreamily. “I’ve never seen him angry like that outside of that world…”

Her face flushes, and Akechi’s jaw tightens, a lump forming in his throat and heat burning his ears. “Well,” he says coldly. “How lucky you must feel.”

She nods, but with worry in her eyes, and grips her bag around her shoulder as she stands. “Did I do something wrong, Akechi-senpai?”

Akechi raises an eyebrow. “You? No. Him?” Akechi frowns, shaking it off, and opens the door for her. “Please get home safely, Yoshizawa-san.”

As soon as she exits, Akechi locks the door and roughly sits back down on the couch, slamming his book shut and crossing one leg over the other and his arms over his chest.

“Sumire left?” Ren says, coming out of the bathroom a moment later with a small bandage over the cut above his eye, the bruise around it only more prominent now. Akechi nods silently with his limbs tightly crossed, even when Ren plops down next to him and leans against his arm. “I don’t mind. I get you all to myself for a while.”

Ren’s cheeky grin feels like mockery, and Akechi refuses to meet his eyes. “Yoshizawa-san is rather cute, isn’t she?”

Ren laughs, with a tiny snort. “Why are _you_ saying that? You don’t even like g--”

“But you think so, don’t you?” Akechi turns his body sideways to frown at him directly, quickly switching from the avoidance to staring him down. “If you were so eager to put yourself into such a situation for her.”

Ren blinks. “I didn’t help her because she’s cute. I helped her because she needed help.”

“Of course,” Akechi sighs. “And what if the police had caught you? That joke of an institution couldn’t be trusted to treat you fairly. You’d be arrested again.”

Ren raises his head, understanding. “...You’d be worried about me.”

“Is that all you took from that?” Akechi grits his teeth. “Or have you truly failed to comprehend that I care what happens to you?”

Ren cups Akechi’s face in his hand, and Akechi lets him. “I know that. But I’m fine. I would’ve run if it got too serious.”

Akechi scoffs and stretches his arms, facing away from him. “Yoshizawa-san’s recollection suggested it was serious enough.” He clears his throat, swallowing a thick lump in his throat as if it was never there. “Apparently you were rather passionate.”  
  
“I don’t know about that,” Ren breathes with an awkward laugh, rubbing at his neck. “But is that so bad? I thought you liked that.”

“I _really_ like that,” Akechi clarifies, moving closer until their noses are almost touching. “If I asked you to kiss me right now, would you?”

Ren takes in a sharp breath. “Yeah.”

Akechi goes in for the kiss, but it’s a fake-out, and he instead pins Ren’s hands to the couch and climbs on top of him, trapping him between his legs. “And if I wanted to have you, would you let me?”

“Y-yeah,” Ren stutters, but only because the excitement the concept makes him feel is nearly unbearable. 

But Akechi is far from amused, but the way his face contorts is soft and lost, unlike the fiery looks that Ren would normally expect in a moment like this. “But it’s not just me, is it?” Akechi frowns, eyes looking away, downtrodden, and his body follows along, pulling himself away from Ren and onto his feet, folding his arms over himself and holding his upper arms, suddenly feeling colder despite the heat outside.

“What?” Ren sits up after him. “Of course it’s just you.”

Akechi shakes his head. “I know there isn’t _someone else_ . There’s _everyone_ else.” He lets the words marinate, so he can turn back with a hardened expression instead of the hurt one he was hiding. “What good is it to know you’d do anything for me if you’d do the same for everyone else?”   
  
Ren stills. “It’s not the same as everyone else.” He reaches out for Akechi, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him in and back onto the couch. “Nothing about you is like anyone else,” he says softly, with a gentleness that soon fades, moving in with more urgency as he skips Akechi’s mouth and goes straight to sucking and nipping at his neck. He knows what buttons to push, how to get right under Akechi’s skin, and he does, pressing their hips together and grinding against him. Once he hears a familiar and oh-so-welcome moan, Ren’s hand pushes up under Akechi’s shirt to press for more of them, and he doesn’t wait for a sign before his other hand sneaks between them, resting on his inner thigh. Akechi stops him.

“Wait,” Akechi breathes, reaching for Ren’s wrist to interrupt it. 

Ren looks down at him with a raised eyebrow, and lowers his voice. “I just want to remind you _you’re mine_ ,” he asserts playfully with a wink. He thinks he’s almost winning when Akechi shudders beneath him and his fingers pull at Ren’s shirt, but Akechi’s quick to shake it off and roll off the couch from underneath him, brushing himself off when he stands and takes a deep breath.

“This is where all of our discussions end up,” he sighs. “Whether it be you or I initiating it, it’s as if we can’t keep our hands off each other.”

Ren laughs nervously. “Is that so bad?”

“Not when it’s over something stupid,” Akechi echoes his laugh. “We’re unlikely to accept a loss to one another even in trivial matters, so a resolution that leaves us both satisfied is the ideal way to end it.” He’s still working on steadying his breath, and a part wants nothing more than to cede victory this time too and climb right back on top of him. 

He almost caves when Ren sits up and pushes his hair back, shirt hanging off his shoulder where Akechi was pulling at it to expose his clavicle. But this isn’t that kind of argument, and Ren can sense that now, slouching with heavy shoulders and a worried brow. 

“You’re not stupid,” Akechi accuses, despite it being a compliment. “You must know that several of your friends would be happy to have you. Every day must feel like a competition for your attention. I would be lying if I said I didn’t know how they feel…”

“Akechi,” Ren stops him, wrapping both arms around him from behind, crossing his wrists. “I already told you. You don’t have to be jealous of anyone.”

“I know!” Akechi yells defensively, pushing out of Ren’s hold and putting some distance between them. He plants his hands firmly down on the nearest surface -- a bookshelf, where both of their tastes have mixed to a point of cohesion. The sigh he forces out makes him shake. “This is getting to be so intense,” he mutters, voice audibly tired. 

Akechi’s watch beeps, and Ren never gets a chance to ask what that means before Akechi silently fixes himself up and leaves for his usual appointment. 

He does, however, spend the next ten minutes debating the possible intentions before he finally calls Ann, and lets her share her own gossip and frustrations before eventually sneaking in hints of his hesitations. They’ve always been each other’s listening ear, only giving advice where it’s desired and appropriate, and Ann is careful not to tell him what to do, only remind him that Akechi’s insecurities aren’t his fault and he can’t make them magically go away.

It’s more helpful than he anticipated, and Ren pays her back by heading to LeBlanc and facetiming her during his visit with Futaba and Sojiro.

* * *

Things still feel tense when Ren arrives home, but he can hear the shower running, so he at least knows Akechi made it back just fine. He doesn’t want to bother him, instead tossing his bag at the front door along with his shoes and taking a heavy seat on the couch, hand naturally scratching at Morgana’s head where he sits next to him. 

“Have fun today?” He asks with a yawn, but Ren shrugs. “Too much on your mind?” Ren nods, and Morgana sits up. “Akechi’s been in there a while...I don’t think he’s feeling well.”

Ren gives Morgana a tired, questioning look, but manages to agree, shuffling towards the bathroom and knocking on the door. “Akechi?” He calls, but when there’s no answer he lets himself in, finding Akechi sitting fully clothed in the running shower, his arms resting on his knees, legs pulled up towards his chest. “Akechi…”

Akechi doesn’t answer, but he hangs his head in a failed attempt to hide his face. It doesn’t do much to hide anything, physical or otherwise.

Ren reaches a hand under the water, finding that it’s not warm anymore. “How can you sit under the cold like this?”

“Stopped feeling it a while ago I guess,” Akechi mutters quietly, but when Ren turns the water off, he can see Akechi’s body shivering. On instinct he grabs a towel and wraps it around Akechi’s shoulders, taking a seat on the toilet next to him.

“So...counseling wasn’t great today?”   
  
Akechi shakes his head.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Ever defying expectation, instead of refusing, Akechi lifts his head and lightly pulls on the towel, wrapping it around him. “I talked about you today.”

Ren leans back, taking in a long breath and rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous smile on his face as he averts his eyes. “Probably not being a great partner if that made you feel like this.”

Akechi scoffs and frowns. “The opposite.” 

“I don’t--”

“Why are you with me?” Akechi asks, but his anger is directed inward. “Why...would you do that to yourself?”

No words feel good enough. Ren sinks to the floor next to him, kneeling next to the bathtub and laying his forehead on the top of Akechi’s head, resting a hand on his back. “The people who convinced you you deserve suffering deserve it more than you ever did.”

Akechi turns his head towards Ren, locking eyes with him. The spaces under his eyes are dark and his skin is pale, but he isn’t afraid when he brings a wet hand up to touch Ren’s face, knuckles brushing his cheek. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

Ren laughs, just barely. “Yeah. Sometimes it makes me mad.”

“Mad?”

Ren places his hand on top of Akechi’s and nods. “That you were punished so much and most of them will never have to face it.”

Stunned for a brief moment, Akechi’s eyes run over Ren’s face, but they never leave him. “I knew I liked you for a reason,” he sighs. “Even when our chosen methods differed, you were never turned off by the idea of revenge.”

“Not everyone deserves forgiveness,” Ren says pointedly, his full chest in it. “So can you trust me when I tell you that you do?”

Akechi blinks back, but his jaw is still tight. “The only forgiveness I want is yours.”

Ren grins, but his eyes and voice are soft. “That sounded pretty romantic.”

Akechi’s shoulders slump, too tired to argue, both emotionally and physically. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Are you kidding?” Ren’s laughter is more hearty, his hand sliding to thread through Akechi’s wet hair without care. “I love you.”

Akechi stills, eyes widened. “You-- What?”

“What?” Ren echoes, blinking curiously. “I’ve told you plenty of times that I--”

“That you like me,” Akechi finishes, heartbeat quickening. “You always tell me you like me. Not...that thing you just said.”

“Love?” Ren raises an eyebrow, fingers curling in Akechi’s hair at the back of his head, leaning in. “You act like you’ve never heard the word before.”

Akechi holds up a hand to stop his kiss, fingertips pressed to Ren’s lips as he stares him down seriously. “Not directed at me, I haven’t.”

Ren pouts against Akechi’s fingers. “Yeah right. I heard enough of the fangirls.”

Akechi absently taps Ren’s philtrum. “The person they refer to isn’t me. This…” He looks down at where he’s sitting, shaking his wet hair and brushing the bags under his eyes with his free hand. “This is closer to the real me than anything they’ve seen, and I do not say so with any satisfaction. So why would you…”

Akechi drops his hand, and Ren takes hold of it. “If I didn’t want every part of you, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. I don’t want you to pretend to be happy all the time, I just wish I could make it so you actually were.” He sighs, scratching at his face. “I have to accept that I can’t.”

Akechi takes a moment to read his expression, holding up a hand between them. “Hold that thought for a moment,” he says, and pushes himself onto his feet, taking Ren by the hand and leading him out of the bathroom and to the bedroom, sitting him on the bed. “Wait here.”

Ren obeys without a second thought, sitting in patient silence for a moment or two until Akechi returns in dry clothing - though only a t-shirt and boxers. His arms slide around Ren’s neck in a way that is by no means unfamiliar to them now, and Akechi’s weight in his lap is a comforting, warm feeling that Ren will always welcome. The way he kisses him is new: slow and lingering, no hurry or urgency, a kiss for the moment as long as it lasts.

It isn’t long before Akechi rests his forehead against Ren’s and sighs, eyes closed. “I want to...be with you,” he breathes, fingers curling into the fabric of Ren’s shirt over his shoulders. “Please.”

He’s never asked before; in fact, they’ve never exchanged many words about the topic, and the earnest nature of Akechi’s request has him feeling butterflies in his stomach as if it were the first time they’d even touched. He nods slowly, “Okay,” and pulls Akechi into another kiss, just as slow but more insistent, hand holding the back of Akechi’s head as he leans back onto the bed and pulls Akechi with him.

Once there, Akechi rolls onto his back instead, pulling Ren on top of him and wrapping arms and legs around him without breaking their kiss.

It’s Ren who breaks it instead, looking down at Akechi below him with worried eyes. “Are you sure…? You’ve always--”

“I know,” Akechi cuts him off, no malice in his voice, only embarrassment tinting his cheeks. “I trust you.” His arms further enclose him, pulling him in until their noses touch, and he whispers, “I _want_ you.”

The words ignite Ren in every possible way, and various parts of him fight for a monopoly on the blood in his body. He doesn’t end up blushing, and his face is pale and eyes wide when he nods. 

Akechi chuckles softly when Ren presses up against him and it’s very clear where all the blood his brain should be using went. “That was quick,” he notes obviously, and he’s grinning.  
  
“Well, yeah,” Ren admits, brushing Akechi’s nose as he moves in to kiss his neck. “All you have to do is be you and it’s pretty easy.” He looks him in the eye before kissing the other side. “You don’t have to try so hard with me.”

“I guess not,” Akechi says distantly, looking thoughtfully up at the ceiling as Ren continues kissing him all over, each one as slow and insistent as the last.

“I’ve also been fantasizing about this forever, so that helps,” Ren adds, voice soft, but he’s smiling so wide it comes out almost gleeful, and Akechi’s eyes go wide.

“Then why didn’t you ever say something?” 

Ren doesn’t stop all the way when he replies, hands busy pushing up Akechi’s shirt so he can kiss his chest. “Never want to ask you to do something you don’t want to,” he shrugs. “You looked handsome when you asked just now.”

Despite all else that’s going on, the ease of the compliment gets Akechi flustered, and he stutters, realizing that he isn’t far behind Ren in being up to the task, something that becomes apparent when clothing is shed.

The only thing more satisfying than the feeling of skin against skin, is the combination of pleasure and intimacy Akechi feels having Ren inside him, and when he loses himself in the high of it, he lets go and allows himself that chance, wrapping his arms and legs around Ren without thinking. With a long exhale, he releases all the tension he’s been holding in his shoulders and lays his head back on his pillow, letting his mind empty.

  
The satisfied grin plastered on Ren’s face is almost obnoxious, but lying next to him, Akechi doesn’t have a problem with it this time; instead, he’s overcome by a different gut reaction, and his arms wrap around Ren’s torso, pulling himself closer so he can lay his head on his shoulder. He says nothing at first, and leans into the gesture when Ren’s arm drops around him and he runs fingers through his hair.

He’s never felt more relaxed in his entire life, but there are still things weighing on his conscience, and he only lets the silence last a few moments before he breaks it.

“I got scared,” he confesses, twirling gentle circles on Ren’s stomach over his shirt. “This morning, when I was… Too much.”

Ren looks down at him, nose in the hair on top of his head and fingertip tracing gently along the bare skin of Akechi’s upper arm. “Scared? Of me getting hurt?”

Akechi searches himself for the words, thankful not to be making eye contact at least. It makes things easier. “Not exactly,” he says softly. “I did get worried. It didn’t feel good, thinking about you being taken away from me, and all the different ways that could happen…” A long sigh breaks up his thoughts. “What scared me is how much that bothered me.”

Ren smirks, but tries to hide it in tufts of brown hair. “So you really _do_ care what happens to me.”   
  
“Of course,” Akechi chuckles, pressing his nose against Ren’s shoulder. “Thinking about not having you now is upsetting… I hated realizing that. I’ve tried _so hard_ not to need anyone.”

“And you don’t,” Ren corrects him, voice gentle. “But it feels pretty good to know you feel that strongly about it.”

“It’s no longer trivial to me,,” Akechi swallows hard before turning his head up to look at him. “So I suppose this means I love you too.” From his position he can feel how instantly Ren’s heart rate quickens, but it makes him calm in contrast. “I mean it.”

Ren’s shit-eating grin gets wider, and he turns away in an effort to hide the flushing of his cheeks. “Heh. This is one of the coolest moments of my life so far.”

“You can’t be serious,” Akechi laughs, sitting up and leaning over him, giving him a suspicious sideways grin from above. “You can’t truly mean that you enjoyed hearing that more than what we just did?”

“Honestly? Yeah.” Ren laughs, pushing Akechi’s hair back and resting his hand on the back of his neck. “There’s no way in hell that ‘perfect’ reality was better than this.”

Akechi scoffs. “Perfection is an illusion, and a boring one at that.”

Ren’s eyelashes flutter against Akechi’s when he steals a quick kiss, and his eyes wander Akechi’s face with a dazed look. “I’m glad you’re real.”

Akechi’s eyebrow raises. “Are you going to be so mawkishly sentimental all the time now?”

“Problem with that?”

“Not as long as that sentimentality is reserved for me,” Akechi turns his body away and pulls on Ren’s sweatpants instead of his own, on his feet in a flash, pulling his hair back and up into a loose clip, his neck exposed along with his bare hip when he raises his arms. “Well? You coming?”

Ren blinks from the bed. “Keep doin’ stuff like that and I might.”

“You’re obscene,” Akechi groans, but he doesn’t so much as attempt to hide his smile. “Now hurry up, or I’m going to be making dinner without you.”

Ren has to fumble around for another pair of pants to put on -- who they belong to is irrelevant at this point -- but he’s quick onto his feet, racing to meet Akechi at the kitchen, where he finds him holding a knife in one hand and a handful of vegetables in the other, with various ingredients out on the counter already. He stops near the entrance.

“What?” Akechi blinks at him.

Ren slowly approaches and reaches for the knife in Akechi’s hand. “You look really hot right now, but you probably shouldn’t be doing something so advanced.”

“I’m not so inept in this area that I can’t chop vegetables, Ren,” He sighs, pulling his hand away defensively, even if their fingers brushing against each other made submission tempting. 

Ren snorts. “You sure about that?” And Akechi is quick to throw a slice of cucumber at him, harmless but pointed. Ren is just as quick in response, reaching for the nearest thing in front of him and tosses what ends up being a fistful of flour at Akechi’s face. 

He freezes, watching as Akechi spits and blinks it away, wiping his eyes and forcing a dry cough. Ren closes the distance between them and wipes Akechi’s cheek with his thumb, planting a kiss on his flour-covered lips as an apology, and Akechi fakes him out by surrendering to it, lulling him into a false sense of security as Akechi reaches for an egg and silently cracks it over Ren’s head, rubbing it around in his hair.

Ren takes a step back, swiping the egg off his forehead before it reaches his eyes, adrenaline pumping as he catches sight of Akechi with a smirk and a hand on his hip.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Akechi asks rhetorically, tossing an egg in the air with one hand and catching it with ease.

With a cocky grin of his own, Ren flings open the refrigerator and fills an arm with condiments, taking an offensive stance. “Bring it on.”

**Author's Note:**

> jessie if you see this ilu thank you


End file.
